.12 – Sky Sword Sect, Still Peak, Yu Shaofeng

translator: xiin

editors: alamerysl & BlueBug

Someone’s face had been mutilated. There was no way this kind of large event would not affect Xue Ling’s side. After all, the only person who had fallen out with Earth Peak since yesterday was Xue Ling, and since something had happened over there, they would naturally come over to find him, and put the blame for this incident squarely on Xue Ling’s head.

Of course, whether this blame was justified or not was still up for discussion.

Xue Ling looked laid-back the whole time. That relaxed, calm appearance made even Yu Shaofeng have some doubts about whether this was his elder martial brother’s handiwork or not.

People from Earth Peak came up and kicked down the door to Xue Ling’s room. One of them rushed inside, pointed a finger straight at Xue Ling and cried, "Elder, he was the only one who had a conflict with our disciple brother yesterday. He must be the one who did that to disciple brother’s face!"

The elder who had been hauled awake so early in the morning had a helpless look on his face. He did not appear to want to be overly involved in this matter, and presided over justice for them: “As I said, my awareness has constantly been covering the entire vessel. If he really did anything, there is no way that I wouldn’t know. Your disciple brother’s face must have been caused by a different reason. You shouldn’t be rushing into his room so carelessly without a just cause."

“Elder understands the situation best. But there are some dogs who don’t feel comfortable if they don’t rush in and bite. Elder should just let them curse a bit to prevent him from going out and barking later, saying our Still Peak is colluding with Sky Peak to bully their Earth Peak." Xue Ling’s sitting posture was idle. There were snacks that came from who knew where in front of him, and even some tea. “It’s a rare to have an opportunity to have a long chat with elder. How about elder sit down and enjoy some snacks? These are all spiritual foods, which are good for cultivation.”

The disciple was so angry, his eyes were red. He stretched out his hand to sweep away the food Xue Ling had placed in front of him, but was locked in place by Xue Ling’s hand and met with his cold eyes. "Did you really believe that I wouldn’t dare to make a move against you just because I didn’t argue with you about your irrational behaviour just now?"

The disciple could not move and burst out, “You wicked man! Is it not enough to have harmed my disciple brother? You still want to harm me. Elder, do you see? Are you really planning to be in cahoots with evil?!"

The elder was left very speechless. This disciple was a new disciple who Ancestor Thunderbolt had just accepted, and his martial brother brought him along this time to broaden his view of the world. But now, even before he had seen anything, he had already been used as a sword to accuse others by his martial brother. It was unknown if this made him lucky or unfortunate.

“Speaking of which, you also need to address me as disciple brother. How did your Earth Peak teach you? You don’t understand any of the rules at all. It’s bad enough that you don’t greet me when you see me, but you even dared to kick down your disciple brother’s door?" Xue Ling knocked on his head and pointed to Yu Shaofeng, who was sitting silently beside him. “See, as someone else’s martial brother, you need to be a little more cute and obedient. If your elder martial brother doesn’t tell you to speak, just keep your mouth shut and sit there. You should do this regardless of which martial brother you’re in front of. Understand?”

The disciple wanted to open his mouth and curse, but in the next second, he had been tossed out. He flew a long way, and almost fell off the flying artefact. In the end, the elder couldn’t bear to watch on anymore, gesturing with his hand to bring him back and preventing him from falling off the edge.

“I’ll stand in for your martial brother and educate you a bit. You don’t need to thank me. Next time you see me, just greet me with a ’hello, martial brother’." Even though he had landed a long way away, that disciple brother still heard a clear voice in his ear as he got up.

The elder headed towards him, and that disciple looked especially wronged. "Elder, didn’t we say that we can’t have internal fights? He bullied me! Isn’t he acting like there’s nobody else on Earth Peak?!"

The elder looked at him indifferently. This person’s face looked a little fierce, and his nose was blue and swollen. He was completely different from Xue Ling, who had even smilingly told him that he understood his own limitations just before he left. The difference in style was just like the difference between heaven and earth.

He spoke lightly, “Your Earth Peak basically doesn’t have anyone left."

The disciple was so vexed, he didn’t bother to answer the elder. He couldn’t curse at the elder, and only angrily made his excuses before turning away and leaving.

He even started muttering indignantly under his breath after he turned to leave. As a matter of fact, martial brother had been right. Sky Peak and Still Peak’s people were all trash. They couldn’t do anything, but they were best at playing underhanded tricks.

Because Earth Peak was unable to produce any evidence, this matter finally ended just like that.

From start to end, Xue Ling was as relaxed as watching a play. He was even shameless enough to use a serious expression and admonish Yu Shaofeng: "Did you see? Many things have to be seen with their own eyes. If you listen to hearsay, you’ll eventually become like that idiot. If I hadn’t saved you from the sea of suffering back then, you would be that idiot now."

In fact, Yu Shaofeng had always been very confused. He was the kind of confused that went from head to toe, the type that completely didn’t understand what happened and what was going on here at all. But when he heard Xue Ling’s words, he suddenly asked: “Martial brother is trying to say that if I had been taken in by Ancestor Thunderbolt back then, I would now look like that person?"

“Yes~” Xue Ling stuffed a piece of cake into his mouth and spoke meaningfully, “Or maybe, the face that was destroyed at that time could have been yours.”

Yu Shaofeng shivered: “Martial brother, you were the one who did it, right...”

“What kind of words are you saying? Does your martial brother look like the kind of person who would do dirty things in the dark because they can’t do it openly during the day? I have always acted fairly and honestly. I wouldn’t even bother to do such filthy things."

Yu Shaofeng didn’t fully understand, but he nodded his head anyway. It was unknown whether he believed it or not.

Xue Ling curved his lips and asked the system that was hanging over his shoulder: "Isn’t that right, system?~"

Although its host wouldn’t be able to see, the system still tried its best to roll its eyes exaggeratedly at him.

He was obviously incredibly petty. If others spoke badly about him once, he would have to retort ten times. If he couldn’t deal with it openly, he would definitely retaliate underhandedly, and in order not to get caught, he even used his system to make a move... it was a system, a golden finger! Not something to be used to secretly bring disaster to an opponent! And it was such cheap goods too!

Although it was indignant, for the sake of improving its host’s mood, the system ultimately still chose to stay quiet and keep its thoughts to itself. Host’s mood had improved after destroying that person, and the low pressure he had been emitting had disappeared. Since someone would have to suffer regardless, it would be best if it wasn’t the system.

After this incident, for some reason, the people of Earth Peak became much more low-key. They no longer came to provoke him, and Xue Ling was also too lazy to concern himself with them. He spent every day cultivating with Yu Shaofeng, and never left the room for several days.

This time, the grand inter-sect competition was being held in Nanyang’s Wang Clan, one of the seven major clans. Nanyang, where the Wang Clan was located, had always been famous for the production and sale of jade. The capital ruled by the Wang Clan was known as the capital of jade. Every one hundred years, a large number of high-quality jade would be produced here. Therefore, the Wang Clan was very rich. Among the seven families, their wealth was ranked first.

Most of Wang Clan’s techniques were supplemented by jade. They were good at arranging all kinds of formations, and it was said that their grand formations could even trap Half-Immortals. But Half-Immortals had not appeared on the continent for many years, and very few people had ever seen them. Naturally, these had all become legends.

Sky Sword Sect was not one of the first to arrive. Four of the other three great sects and seven major clans had already arrived before them. Wang Clan had obviously made a big contribution to this time’s inter-sect competition, and had specifically built villas for the disciples of various sects to live in temporarily. The villas sprawled over a very wide area, and the scenery left them with nothing to complain about. The area where the inter-sect competition would be held was not far from the villas, and many arenas platforms had already been set up there.

For the sake of fairness, the number of people that each faction could dispatch for every cultivation stage was fixed, but it was still necessary to screen out the participants at the beginning in order to whittle down the crowd.

The first competition was a big free-for-all. The number of people eliminated from each faction was fixed, and once they reached their quota, others in the arena would no longer be able to lay hands on the remaining disciples of that faction. There were also rules that those who were of different cultivation stages could not be matched together during this initial phase to avoid having some gifted disciples who had only been cultivating for a short time from being kicked out at the start just because they lacked experience.

The inter-sect competition would begin ten days later. Xue Ling’s group was assigned to live in an inn-like building along with the people from Shangdu’s Chi Clan.

It was probably due to the connection between Venerable Crimson Flame and Sky Sword Sect that the relationship between Chi Clan and Sky Sword Sect had always been good. The two factions had been arranged to stay together, and some of the youths went out to play and tumble together; the scene was quite harmonious.

Since everyone was here, Xue Ling would also need to bring Yu Shaofeng to meet the guests that had come from the Chi Clan. After a round of greetings, he was once again surrounded by the younger generations. He even had his head conked by Chi Li, who praised him for having the same potential as Chi Lan.

Xue Ling kept a smile on his face the whole time, and then dissatisfiedly pinched Yu Shaofeng’s face after they returned back to their room. "Why didn’t they pinch your cheeks and try to rub shoulders with you?"

Yu Shaofeng’s looked innocent. "Perhaps it’s because I’m not as likeable as martial brother is?"

Xue Ling enjoyed his flattery very much. He hummed and forgave his foolish martial brother, then sent him out of the room, saying, "Little children should go out and interact with others, and see more of what the world of cultivation is really like."

Yu Shaofeng was pushed out the door. He asked oddly, "What about martial brother? Are you not going?”

“Your martial brother has no leisure time. I still have to cultivate in order protect my dumb martial brother as well as my Master’s reputation!" Heavens knew how unhappy he was whenever he was praised as being similar to Chi Lan. He was much more of a genius than Chi Lan was! They should know that he had only built up his Qi foundation when he transformed into human form. Since then, he had already rushed into the Yuanying stage. His foundations were solid, and he would never lose in a fight. But all of this had nothing to do with Chi Lan!

That fellow had never instructed him in cultivation at all!

System: “But you are cultivating by absorbing his fire and lightning Qi...”

“Keep your mouth shut when you’re not being asked to speak."

System: “... Oh... ”

Xue Ling stayed in their room and refused to go out, so Yu Shaofeng had to go out by himself. He was wearing Sky Sword Sect’s sect uniform, and those who didn’t know better only thought that he was a young disciple who came from Sky Sword Sect to compete or watch the event. His movements were like a sword that had just come out of sheath. His martial brother had promised him that he would win the competition, and then use that piece of meteorite that was the prize to create a sword for him. He was really looking forward to it now, and one day while he was practicing, he suddenly understood his sword intent. But because it was not yet fully under his control, some of his sword intent leaked out between his actions.

It was also this sword intent that attracted certain people’s attention.

It was like meeting someone he was destined to meet. He met this person while turning a corner; and then both sides noticed the other party’s sword intent, and looked at each other in surprise.

“Sky Sword Sect, Still Peak, Yu Shaofeng." Pressing his lips together, Yu Shaofeng cupped his hands together and gave a greeting.

“Shangdu’s Chi Clan, Chi Jian.” That person nodded their head, and returned the greeting, opening his mouth to give his own name.

xiin: my baby ship has appeared~